The Pac-12 has a new recruiting king, while the Arizona schools live in the middle.

UCLA coach Jim Mora adjusted just fine to the college game a year ago, spinning a near top-10 class after only several weeks on the job.

He further flexed in this recruiting cycle, putting together the unanimous top group in the conference, dethroning the usual February champ, USC.

(On the right: Composite rankings from 247Sports, ESPN, Rivals.com and Scout.com.)

The Bruins had high quality across the boards; 17 of its 23 signees were rated at least a four-star recruit by Scout.com.

USC signed five five-star recruits — as many as the entire ACC — but late defections and NCAA sanctions kept the Trojans to a 12-player class. Quality over quantity, coach Lane Kiffin said. But quantity matters, too, in recruiting rankings, and USC’s rankings suffered.

Same goes for defending Pac-12 champ Stanford. The Cardinal rated shockingly low, but coach David Shaw was able to bring in just 12 recruits, and he’ll have time to develop them because his roster is already well-stocked.

As for the Arizona schools, it was a virtual dead heat.

The Wildcats ranked ahead of ASU in two of the four rankings from major media outlets. In an average of the four national rankings, the Devils came out a fraction ahead — 36.5 to 36.75.

ASU was sixth in the Pac-12 in the composite average. Arizona was seventh.

The two second-year coaches got there via different means, however.

The Sun Devils signed 10 junior college transfers, giving coach Todd Graham 19 in his two recruiting classes. Arizona signed two junior college transfers Wednesday (and missed on a couple of others). Rich Rodriguez has signed just three JC transfers overall, including a pair of quarterbacks — B.J. Denker and Jesse Scroggins.

Graham did well with JC transfers in his first year with running back Marion Grice, linebacker Chris Young and others. Will the reliance on transfers hurt ASU down the road? It helps the Devils that four of ASU’s junior college transfers this season have three years of playing eligibility, not just two.

“We are going to recruit the best, brightest, the best character, and the best football players period,” Graham said at his Signing Day press conference.

“I think we can sign the best junior college players in the country. We have the opportunity and the ability to attract the best junior college players in California and Arizona.

“I will just point to this year, and the success that we had being able to bring in those guys in and transition them. I don’t think every staff can do that.”

Arizona State coach Todd Graham did win the Territorial Cup by beating Arizona, but that hardly merited a Top 25 ranking. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The final regular-season USA Today college football coaches poll — in which the individual ballots are revealed for the only time — are usually a fount of amusement, filled with curiosity, cronyism and conflicts of interest.

With bonuses sometimes tied to the BCS standings — of which the coaches poll makes up one-third of the formula — should coaches really be voting?

You can see how all the coaches voted at this link, and one thing jumped out at me right away.

Arizona State, at 7-5 overall, received eight votes in the poll. Upon closer inspection, two coaches put the Sun Devils on their Top 25 ballot. Looking even further, you find that the one coach to rate ASU the highest — at No. 20 — is none other than Arizona State coach Todd Graham.

ASU defeated only one FBS team with a winning record this season, that being 7-5 Arizona.

The other coach to put Arizona State on his ballot was Arkansas State’s Gus Malzahn, who had the Devils at No. 24. Perhaps no so coincidentally, Malzahn was an offensive coordinator under Graham at Tulsa.

Malzahn also ranked his own team the highest, putting the Red Wolves at No. 17. They were included on just four of 59 ballots.

Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez is also a voter, and his ballot largely followed the pack, although he did not include Nebraska nor Wisconsin in his Top 25. His one “outlier” is his old school, Michigan. RichRod put the Wolverines at No. 15, which matched Michigan’s highest ranking. No hard feelings then, Michigan fans?

One more note about that: Of the two other coaches to put Michigan at No. 15, one was Wolverines coach Brady Hoke.

And all this comes when the coaches know their ballots will be made public. Makes you wonder what craziness happens behind the curtain in the regular season.

Ka’Deem Carey leaps into the end zone for a first-quarter touchdown. Photo by Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats running back Ka’Deem Carey, despite missing stretches of the second half because of injury, improved his national-best rushing average with 25 carries for 172 yards and one touchdown against Arizona State on Friday night.

Carey said last week he has been bothered by a bruised collarbone and other injuries.

Carey had only six carries after halftime. Backup Daniel Jenkins had 20 rushes in the second half.

“He was banged up before the game,” coach Rich Rodriguez said of Carey after the 41-34 loss to the Sun Devils.

“He was banged up last week (at Utah). He got banged up again. He wasn’t able to go as much, but I think D.J. did a nice job when he went in there.”

Carey, who entered the game leading the nation with 144.1 yards per game, did break the school season rushing record early in the game. He zoomed past Trung Canidate (1,602 yards, 1999) and sits at 1,757 at the end of the regular season. That’s 146.4 yards per game.

His closest competitor nationally is Nevada’s Stefphon Jefferson, who entered this week 19 yards behind Carey. The Wolf Pack plays host to Boise State on Dec. 1.

Carey’s lone touchdown run against Arizona State — a Superman-style leap over safety Alden Darby from 1-yard out — to give the Cats a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. He has 20 touchdown runs, and can aim for the school season record of 21, set by Art Luppino in 1954, in the bowl game.

Carey has rushed for 742 yards in the past three games.

I don’t understand how the kid from Arizona gets no hype he’s leading the nation in rushing just saying

— LaMichael James (@LaMichaelJames) November 24, 2012

* * *

Rodriguez and Arizona State coach Todd Graham mostly danced around the issue leading up to the game, but it’s clear there is a chilly relationship between the coaching staffs.

Rodriguez and Graham managed only a cursory handshake after the game.

According to Craig Morgan of FoxSportsArizona.com, Graham later quipped about Rodriguez, “He didn’t have much to say.”

* * *

The loss to Arizona State cost Rodriguez $30,000. That’s the bonus he would have received if the Wildcats had finished ranked 16th to 25th in the BCS standings.

Arizona was 24th last week and presumably would have at least maintained its position with a victory.

Rodriguez will earn a $75,000 bonus for getting to a non-BCS bowl game.

* * *

Arizona junior nose tackle Tevin Hood — who had been a topic of discussion during the week because his younger brother, Jaxon, is a nose tackle for ASU — led the Wildcats with 10 tackles.

Hood started in place of Sione Tuihalamaka, who played in a reserve role. Hood said Tuihalamaka suffered a shoulder injury in last week’s game at Utah.

Hood was one of four walk-ons who started on defense, the others being linebacker Sir Thomas Jackson and safeties Jared Tevis and Vince Miles.

* * *

Arizona wide receiver Dan Buckner, bothered by an ankle injury, played early in the game but then had to sit out after not making a catch.

“We were worried we weren’t going to be able to do much coming in,” Rodriguez said. “Dan tried, but he just couldn’t push off on the ankle.”

The passing game was out of sync most of the night. Quarterback Matt Scott was just 19 of 39, missing at times when receivers were running different routes than he anticipated.

“It affects us a lot, especially me,” receiver Austin Hill said of Buckner’s absence.

“We didn’t have our senior leader out there today and somebody had to step up. … It’s kind of weird not having Dan out there, just because I have to play a little bit more outside than I want.”

Hill, who usually plays in the slot, finished with five catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. The team’s leading receiver was slot receiver Garic Wharton, who finished with career highs of six catches for 89 yards.

* * *

The visiting team has won the past four games in the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry. … The Sun Devils have won five of the past seven games in Tucson. … Seven of the past nine UA-ASU games have been decided by a touchdown or less. … ASU fifth-year senior linebacker Brandon Magee had a game-high 17 tackles, including three for loss. Magee, on ASU clinching its first winning season since 2007: “It just feels nice to start changing things with this program. It feels great to leave on a positive note.” … Arizona and ASU will each have a winning season for the first time since 1997.

* * *

Freshman linebacker Dakota Conwell tweeted this after the game:

That one hurts as bad if not worse than any. Sorry to our senior we played as hard as we could. All we can do is get em for you next year.

— Dakota Conwell (@Dakota_Back) November 24, 2012

Photo by azcentral.com sports.

A new rivalry era begins Friday night.

The last time Arizona and Arizona State had new coaches in the rivalry game was 2001. John Mackovic’s Wildcats defeated the Sun Devils of Dirk Koetter, 34-21 in Tempe.

But the past decade-plus hasn’t been particularly kind to either school, which is why each program had to press the reset button last season.

Arizona jettisoned Mike Stoops and brought in Rich Rodriguez, trying to climb back among the nation’s elite coaches after a failed tenure at Michigan. Arizona State sent off Dennis Erickson and imported Todd Graham after his one season at Pitt.

Whatever their histories, it’s history. Their Territorial Cup story begins now.

“There’s going to be a lot of intensity,” Rodriguez said. “This shouldn’t be a game where I have to do all of the motivational tactics to get guys excited.”

Both coaches took the low-key public tact this week, their diplomacy glossing over nearly two decades of history between Rodriguez and Graham.

They first met on the field in the 1993 NAIA championship game. Rodriguez, the head coach at Glenville State in West Virginia, took his team to play at East Central (Okla.), whose defensive coordinator was Graham.

Graham’s team won 49-35 but he loved Rodriguez’s offensive innovation — the no-huddle, read-option spread offense. That offense has been, at least in part, the inspiration for every offense Graham as run as a head coach — from Allen (Texas) High, to Rice, to Tulsa, to Pitt, to ASU.

Rodriguez hired Graham for his first West Virginia coaching staff in 2001.

“I knew him from the recruiting trail and a little bit from the coaching standpoint,” Rodriguez said. “When I hired him, I was starting something new at West Virginia. He did a good job, and after two years he moved on.”

(Interestingly, Graham’s coaching bios at his other college stops mentions his work under Rodriguez, but Arizona State has scrubbed mention of Rodriguez from his current bio.)

Rodriguez’s first staff at West Virginia also included Calvin Magee as running backs coach. Magee was one of three assistants who were with Graham at Pitt last season who left to rejoin Rodriguez at Arizona. The others were safeties coach Tony Gibson and receivers coach Tony Dews.

Graham reportedly called them “mercenaries” … before he bolted Pitt a couple of weeks later for ASU.

Magee wanted no part of questions about Graham this week.

“I worked with Coach Graham one year,” Magee said. “Enough said.”

So, will this game get personal?

“Being a rivalry, I think the rivalry makes it personal in some regards,” Rodriguez said, before taking a light-hearted approach.

“But I’m not playing. I’ve been training in case they allow me to play. If they change the rules and allow me and Todd to go at it one-on-one, I’ll try to be ready for that.”

Graham said the rivalry “is much bigger than any individual or any person or anything.”

“It is my job to put our guys in a position to win every week,” he added. “Obviously, that is a challenge every week, especially in a rivalry game like this. You don’t want to beat yourself by being too emotionally involved.”

Fans on each side of the rivalry can hope the coaching changes elevate the rivalry beyond a regional desert duel. The game hasn’t meant much nationally since Dick Tomey and Bruce Snyder were coaching. Arizona and Arizona State haven’t each finished with winning records since the 1997 season.

That would happen this year if ASU (6-5 overall, 4-4 Pac-12) beats Arizona (7-4, 4-4). It could also happen if UA wins, and the Devils go on to win their bowl game.

Each coach has done a fine job of “changing the culture” — usually the initial task of somebody who follows a fired coach. But only one can hold the Territorial Cup late Friday night.

Welcome to the new era.

Arizona State fans will be giddy, at least for the next couple of weeks.

The Sun Devils are 4-1, have found a quarterback in sophomore Taylor Kelly, are on the fringes of the Top 25 and should, with relative ease, post another victory next Thursday at Colorado.

That will set up a huge Thursday night “Blackout” game on Oct. 18 — at home vs. Oregon — that already has launched a mascot war.

With league wins over Utah and Cal, ASU should be considered ahead of schedule in its first season under Todd Graham. The Sun Devils would be 5-0 if they could have made a play at the goal line at Missouri.

But, as was the case last year, we really won’t find out what kind of team the Devils have until they hit the tougher part of their schedule in the second half of the season. ASU has yet to face a dynamic quarterback. That will change.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s first year under Rich Rodriguez already is in its critical stretch, with the Cats facing their third No. 18 team in the country this week at Stanford. UA split against its previous No. 18 foes — beating Oklahoma State and losing last week to Oregon State.

What to make of the Wildcats?

On the one hand, the defense is vulnerable and perilously thin (thinner?), making it unlikely Arizona can hold up through this minefield that features Washington, USC and UCLA after Stanford.

On the other hand, Arizona was a play or two away from beating Oregon State and getting to 4-1.

At close to maximum efficiency — that’s always the rub, isn’t it? — the Cats have enough firepower on offense and fight on defense — to hang with most teams.

But, as of now, Arizona State seems to be in better shape to make something of this first-year rebuilding project.

There’s not much separating the programs — after all, the past three meetings have been decided on the final play — but the Sun Devils have two important things Arizona doesn’t right now.

1. Will Sutton.

2. A depth boost from junior college transfers.

Sutton, a junior defensive tackle, is playing like an All-American. He has 10 tackles for loss, including 6.5 sacks. Those would be remarkable season-long numbers for an interior lineman. He has those after five games.

“He needs to go ahead and start getting paid,” Colorado coach Jon Embree said on the Pac-12 coaches teleconference Tuesday. “He’s the best D-lineman I’ve seen, by far, in our conference.”

Todd Graham has ASU off to a 2-0 start in the Pac-12. Photo by Dak Dillon-US PRESSWIRE

Sutton, by himself, has more sacks than the entire Arizona defense. The Wildcats have a scant five sacks, with only half a sack coming from a defensive lineman.

As for depth, Graham and Rodriguez each took a different approach with their first recruiting classes.

Graham signed nine junior college transfers. Rodriguez signed only one JC transfer, adding quarterback B.J. Denker months after the February signing day.

Arizona has only two junior college recruits — center Steven Gurrola of Glendale Community College and cornerback Prince Holloway of Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College — committed for the 2013 class, which is nearly full.

Former head coaches Dick Tomey and Mike Stoops routinely added five or six junior college transfers each year (with Tomey having much more success — Chris McAlister, Glenn Parker, Edwin Mulitalo, Frank Middleton, Jeremy McDaniel, Josh Miller — to name several).

Rodriguez won’t be sign as many, even though he admits his team has “quite a few immediate needs” that could be addressed by junior college additions.

“I think it’s personal philosophy from a coaching standpoint,” Rodriguez said of recruiting junior college players.

“We’ll try to get a few junior college guys every year. We didn’t really have time this past recruiting class to do much of anything. This year, there may be a couple. Again, you have to be able to get them into school.

“Everybody’s admission standards are a little bit different. So, for us, there are more challenges that way to get guys. There are a few we’re looking at. We won’t ever take a huge junior college class. We may take one, two or three — four maybe at the most — and then build around the freshmen.”

No doubt, junior college recruits have been a key factor in ASU’s good start.

Marion Grice has 36 rushes for 206 yards and five touchdowns in a deep backfield. Outside linebacker Chris Young has a team-high 36 tackles, including 9.5 for loss. Steffon Martin is a starting linebacker. At least a few others provide depth, although touted nose guard Mike Pennel is now on his second suspension.

Let’s further break down the teams so far:

Three ASU strengths

1. QB Taylor Kelly — Has managed the game, limited mistakes (only two INTs) and his mobility gives the offense versatility.

2. Discipline — Arizona State is among the national leaders with only 4.2 penalties for 31 yards per game. The Devils have picked up an extra 50 yards per game over last season just by eliminating the flags that were so prevalent under Dennis Erickson.

3. An attacking defense — The Devils rank second in the country with 9.8 tackles per loss per game.

Three Arizona strengths

1. QB Matt Scott — The coaches don’t want him to take too many shots in the running game, so he isn’t a read-option wizard like other Rodriguez quarterbacks, but he can be a threat and he’s proven he can handle the passing game. He ranks fifth nationally with an average of 367.2 yards of total offense. We’ll say it again because we like repeating ourselves: Matt Scott gives Arizona a chance.

2. Sophomores — Rodriguez can build around a promising group of sophomores that includes running back Ka’Deem Carey, wide receiver Austin Hill, offensive tackles Mickey Baucus and Fabbians Ebbele, safeties Jared Tevis, Tra’Mayne Bondurant and Jourdon Grandon, and cornerback Jonathan McKnight.

3. Tackling — Although the Cats are giving up about the same number of yards per game as last season, you have to factor in tempo. Playing faster on offense, means more possessions for everybody, which means the Wildcats are having to defend more plays. Bottom line: Arizona has improved defensively, in no small part due to better tackling, and is allowing 5.41 yards per play after yielding 6.59 yards per play last season.

So that’s the five-week check-up on the rival programs.

Short-term, give the edge to Arizona State. Long-term … well, fans of each school have to like their chances.

Rich Rodriguez talks to quarterback Matt Scott at a scrimmage in Glendale last month. Photo by Pat Shanahan, The Arizona Republic

Arizona Wildcats coach Rich Rodriguez has an even better idea than teaming with ASU coach Todd Graham to throw out the first pitches before the Arizona Diamondbacks’ season-opener.

“It would probably be more exciting if he was batting and I was pitching,” Rodriguez said. “Or the other way around.”

As it is, the two new college football head coaches in the state will have to settle for dueling Duel in the Desert deliveries on Friday afternoon at Chase Field. In the never-give-an-inch world of coaching, you can bet each will be looking to fire a strike with slightly more velocity than the other guy.

Rodriguez, 48, said he hasn’t much thrown a baseball since he was a high school infielder, other than a couple of cases of tossing a ceremonial first pitch at a minor-league game.

This is the big leagues now.

“I better throw a little to get loose,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

Having Graham throw out the first pitch in his home city makes sense, but Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick wouldn’t miss an opportunity to also highlight Rodriguez, his good friend. Kendrick is a West Virginia alum, where Rodriguez played football and served as head coach from 2001 to 2007.

“He was a huge supporter,” Rodriguez said.

“I didn’t know him until I started coached there as a head coach, but then after I got to know him, we became very close friends. I actually came out every May to see him in Phoenix.”

Rodriguez saw a lot of Graham in 2001 and 2002, when Graham served as a defensive assistant at West Virginia.

“We’ve always had a great relationship,” Rodriguez said.

“We haven’t talked since he got the (ASU) job. We would keep in touch before then, but we will probably keep in touch a whole lot less now just because it’s our rivalry and we play each other.

“We’ll be friendly, but we just won’t talk about football and what each other is doing, because that is the competitive side of both of us.”

Rodriguez won’t be able to stay for the entire game, which begins at 4:10 p.m., because he has to be back in Tucson for a Friday night practice/scrimmage that is closed to the public and media. The Wildcats will be working on campus under the lights at the now-vacant home of the UA baseball team, Frank Sancet Stadium.

Todd Graham went 6-6 in his one season at Pitt. Photo by Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE

When new Arizona State coach Todd Graham was the head coach at Allen (Texas) High School in the late 1990s, he ran a no-huddle, shotgun offense that emphasized the option attack.

Who was his inspiration, at least in part, for that brand of offensive attack?

His friend, Rich Rodriguez.

That’s what Graham told the Dallas Morning News in a 2000 story, and there was enough friendship/mutual respect between the two that Rodriguez hired Graham when he put together his first coaching staff at West Virginia in 2001.

A 2001 Dallas Morning News referred to Rodriguez and Graham as “close friends.”

Now, they’re rivals.

The Arizona-Arizona State rivalry has been reset with new coaches, and not that the battle for the Territorial Cup needs more intensity — the past three games have been decided on the final play — but there are a few new, juicy subplots.

In addition to the Rodriguez-Graham angle, there’s the fact that three new UA assistants worked for Graham at Pitt last season. Of course, those three — Calvin Magee, Tony Gibson and Tony Dews — have far longer connections with Rodriguez.

According to a tweet from Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Todd Graham called Calvin Magee, Tony Gibson and Tony Dews “mercenaries” when they left for Arizona.”

And then Graham left after one season at Pitt.

(Rodriguez, responding to a text message, said he would have “no comment at this time” about his relationship and background with Graham.)

Graham, 47, and Rodriguez, 48, go back nearly two decades.

Rodriguez was the head coach at Glenville State in 1993, when he faced East Central (Okla.) in the NAIA championship game. East Central won 49-35, but its defensive coordinator — Graham — became enamored of Rodriguez’s no-huddle, spread offense.

“We just developed a respect for each other that turned into a friendship,” Graham told the Dallas Morning News in 2001.

When Rodriguez was hired at West Virginia, he brought in Graham to coach linebackers. Graham then served in 2002 as the Mountaineers’ co-defensive coordinator (with Jeff Casteel), defensive scheme coordinator and safeties coach.

Graham left after the 2002 season to become the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Tulsa. Graham went on to become the head coach at Rice in 2006, at Tulsa from 2007-10, and at Pitt this season.

(It’s funny how Graham’s official bios from Rice, Tulsa and Pitt mention that he worked under Rodriguez at West Virginia. In a speck of rivalry gamesmanship, ASU scrubbed any reference to Rodriguez in Graham’s new bio.)

Although he has a defensive background, Graham is dedicated to Rodriguez’s offensive approach. Following the fast-paced blueprint, Tulsa led the nation in total offense in 2007 and 2008.

“The thing I learned from Coach Rodriguez was mental toughness,” Graham told the Houston Chronicle in 2006. “He was a guy with a hard edge, but he was going to train those kids. He was all about mental and physical training.”

So, it should be an interesting dynamic: Friends? Rivals? Both?

It’s not unprecedented in the rivalry. Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller is part of the coaching tree of ASU’s Herb Sendek.

Arizona fans like what the pupil is doing in that matchup. For football, they hope that the teacher is still head of the class.

Follow azcentral.com for the latest news on the hiring of Todd Graham.